10 Tips to Go from Nobody to Front Page News
When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news. - Charles Anderson Dana
You must manage your own media. Yes, a PR firm can help you generate those contacts, but early in your career you won’t need them and you probably won’t be able to afford them.
Who better than you to tell your story with credibility and passion? Start making calls to the reporters who cover your industry. Have lunch with them. Create and send press releases. Remember, media folks need you as much as you need them. They may not need your exact story at the exact time you want, but with a little stick-to-itiveness, they’ll come around.
Here are 10 tips to help you break a big story – yours!
1. Know the Media Landscape
Nothing infuriates reporters and editors more, I’m told, than to get a pitch from someone who clearly has no idea what their publication is about or who their audience is. So spend time reading their articles, figuring out what they cover, and what kinds of stories their publications like to run.
2. Work the Angles
There are no new stories,it has been said, only old stories told in new ways. To make your pitch sound fresh and original, find an innovative slant. What’s your slant? Anything that screams, “Now!”
3. Think Small
Are you Bill Gates? No. Maybe you’ve developed the antidote for the common cold? No again. Well,the New York Times probably isn’t knocking on your door quite yet. Go local first. Start a database of newspapers and magazines in your area that might be interested in your content. Try college papers, the neighborhood newspaper, or the free industry digital newsletter you find in your inbox.
4. Make a Reporter Happy
They’re a rushed, impatient, always-stressed bunch of overachievers. Work at their pace and be available whenever they call on you. NEVER blow off an interview, and try to facilitate the contacts they’ll need to produce a good story.
5. Master the Art of the Sound Bite
Learn to be brief—in both your written and phone pitches. Brevity is cherished in the media. Think in terms of talking points. Pick the three most interesting points about your story and make them fast, make them colorful, and make them catchy.
6. Don’t Be Annoying
There’s a fine line between marketing yourself properly and becoming annoying. If a pitch of mine gets rejected, I’ll ask what else it needs to make it publishable. Sometimes it will never be right in the editor’s eyes, but other times, you can answer a few more questions or dig deeper and repitch the story. It is okay to be aggressive, but mind the signals, and back off when it’s time.
7. It’s All on the Record
Be cautious: What you say can hurt you, and even if you’re not quoted or you say something off the record, a reporter will use your words to color the slant of the article. I’m not advocating being tight-lipped. That’s what corporate communications directors get paid for, and I don’t know anyone in the press who likes them. Just remember: All press is not good press, even if they spell your name right.
8. Trumpet the Message, Not the Messenger
All your efforts at publicity, promotion,and branding need to feed into your mission; if they’re only feeding into your ego, you’ll find yourself with a reputation you hadn’t bargained for that could hold you back for the rest of your life.
9. Treat Journalists as You Would Any Other Member of Your Network or Community of Friends
As in any interview, your primary objective when you meet with a member of the press is to get the person across from you to like you. The reporter is human (at least most are) and your empathy for his or her hard work will go a long way. If they include you in a story, thank them.
10. Be a Name-Dropper
Connecting your story with a known entity—be it a politician, celebrity, or famous businessperson—acts as a de facto slant. Bottom line: The media wants recognizable faces in their pages. If your story will give them access to someone they otherwise haven’t been able to get, they’ll make concessions.
And remember: Once you’ve put in all that hard work and landed a nice article, it’s no time to be modest. Send the article around. Give it to your alumni magazine. Update your class notes. Use the article to get even more press coverage. I’ll attach a recent article about me to an e-mail and in the subject line write,“Here’s another one of Ferrazzi’s shameless attempts at self-promotion.” Most people get a kick out of it and it keeps you on everyone’s radar.
Have fun!
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Keith Ferrazzi is an expert on relationship development, a world-renowned speaker and the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back.-
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Great tips! I've been having a hard time getting our CEO in front of newspapers & media. He has a great story & case studies of how he has helped keep health insurance premiums low for companies without reducing benefits (obviously a timely issue). I'll give some of these a shot and see if we improve! Thanks again.
I am very excited to see this topic! Thank you. These are great basic news tips. But, it did not cover the realities of the changing news landscape. And, how we need to be aware of the lay of the land, be very targeted in our news outreach and know how to access a variety of media channels for greater success. Not just newspapers.
1) Being aware of the Pew 2009 State of the Media is a valuable read for anyone planning strategic media outreach. The average age/readership of newpaper consumption is way down.
( I quote in part below from PEW - http://bit.ly/jCdlM ).
Among readers of all ages, readership declined between 2007 and 2008. Young people in the age groups of 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 continue to have the lowest readership levels of daily newspapers.
Among readers 18 to 24 years of age, 31% say they read a newspaper yesterday, according to data from Scarborough Research. This represents a drop of two percentage points from the prior year. Those in the 25-to-34 age group do not demonstrate much better numbers. Readership of daily newspapers was down to 32%, also down two percentage points from 2007.14
Those aged 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 also showed declines in readership in 2008. Readership of daily newspapers was down to 41% and 51%, respectively, among the age groups.15
And even the most faithful readers of newspapers, older people, or those ages 55 – to 64 and 65 and above have shown sharp drops in readership since 2000. In 2008, readership was down to 57% among 55-to-64-year-olds, a drop of nine percentage points since 2000. Those 65 and older showed an even greater drop.
Although 64% say they picked up a newspaper yesterday, this number has declined from 72% in 2000, an eight percentage point difference.
The study, released in August, found that those who said they had read a newspaper yesterday was 34%, compared to 40% two years earlier.
At best, only 34% are reading a newspaper?
So, that tells me you need to know where the people are, where they are reading, how they are reading/viewing and target very specific niches by doing your research in advance to create your media strategy.
2) Knowing how and where to reach traditional journalists, J-bloggers, hard print news distribution sources, e-news and commenting on virtualized news aggregate sites are all important tactics to the whole strategic element of nuturing a news story.
Over all, the total number of daily newspapers continued to significantly decline. In 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, daily newspapers were down to 1,422 in that year from 1,437 in 2006. Of the total number of daily newspapers, evening papers continued to decline, while those in the morning continued a trend of growth. In 2007, the number of evening papers declined by 49. This compares with a drop of 31 evening papers from 2005 to 2006.
Although those hardprint newspaper numbers are changing with declining there is still value in getting earned or paid "Ink."
Some of the players of the paid media distribution arena are PRNewswire, Businesswire, Cision, AP News, UPI, XpressPress, Reuters, VocusPR and each has their strengths in the distribution arena. There are others. And, there are sources you can use that are free.
There is more to the press release and pitch today than meets the eye. There are public relations software tools and resources including media research, media lists, press clipping services, media monitoring services and evaluation of media coverage.
3) But, more importantly, most companies/organizations/agencies and people are not building evolved news pages, evolved press releases or evolved media sites to accomodate/integrate the new media landscape.
Ask yourself, are you still writing and posting press releases the way they were developed in the early 1900's, which were formatted for the telegraph wire for transmission? And, is your answer something like "because that's the way it's always been done?"
4) Learn how social media has challenged and changed traditional communication structures and prepare for that part of your entire integrated communication and news strategy.
Media intelligence and media insight helps improve your communication performance, build your reputation, and maximize the results of your media relations efforts.
I welcome and questions any additional comments.
Most Sincerely,
Alice M. Fisher
Twitter.com/unlimitedpr
Unlimitedmarcom.ning.com (links here for building free media lists)
Interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing.
These are some great tips. In my experience many journalists can be lazy, so doing some of the research and stats can help you get your story published easier. Sometimes I turn my press releases into full-blown articles, it has worked for me more times than I can count.
I also have a database of every fax number for every media outlet in the United States. When I really want my press release to count I will fax it to the editor of the publication.
Until you become a brand, you have to add value to your brand by yourself. The positive projection is very much needed because nobody can project you unless you project yourself and become known to people.